


Mana's Wonderland

by aguamenting



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Corrupted Gems, Fantasy, Fighting, Gay Pirates, Gems, Guns, M/M, Pirates in love, Quest, Sky Pirates, Swords, Temporary Character Death, Unusual relationships, bad guy yunho, captain hongjoong, fantasy quest, friendships, gems sickness, lots of plot twists, pilote san, prisoner wooyoung, second in command seonghwa, sexy pirates, swords fights, technically the story is kinda done in 2 parts, trust me until the end of the story PLEASE, villain yunho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:15:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26239951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aguamenting/pseuds/aguamenting
Summary: "Yggdrasil rules on top of the world since forever. The gigantic black tower trimmed by mirror walls, guardian of Mana's stones, queen of the continent, and root of human civilization. Mana’s stones hold both illness and recovery. Whoever challenges Mana’s power will immediately be turned into a statue of shimmering stones for eternity. Only Mana decides what he takes and what he leaves.""Jongho loved the crazed glint in Captain Hongjoong’s gaze, moments where his tiger-like pupils were sparkling in the opal of his skin adorned with colored shards, he loved to see his captain burn like the fire of Hell and to happily throw himself into his flames."
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Kim Hongjoong, Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, Kang Yeosang/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. Ruby

**Author's Note:**

> Hello !!! Oh my god I'm so, so happy to post this work !!
> 
> I know, it's been a few comebacks since Queen Wonderland came out but this story was a complicated work. It was meant to be "over" in one part, like, with an open ending (you'll see soon what I mean) but then I wrote a second part, unable to leave my characters, then the story was meant to end on a less open ending but still a bit open, then... surprise, mfckr, I'm currently writing a third part and I think it will be the last for good this time. (update : no it's not)
> 
> So don't expect this story to be over with only this part and please !!! please !!! trust me, it will be okay PLEASE
> 
> I have to DEEPLY, TRULY thank @Maluucious and @etoilephilante for the WHOLE translation of this part, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING ME THAT MUCH (im still french, and still bad ad english, even though im able to talk, yeahhh) 
> 
> and !!! last but not least I have also this masterpiece of art made by @hizuillu on twitter : https://twitter.com/hizuillu/status/1252643076394401795 that pictures the captain Hongjoong in my story. Thanks again, a lot !!!
> 
> enough talking I hope you'll enjoy my interpretation of the boys' best song and mv (no, wrong, actually the best mv is illusion. no negotiation) as much as I did !!! I tried to put a lot of their story, of what they tell in their aesthetics inside this work, as well some ideas of mine of course. I really hope you'll enjoy it, thanks again to babies marie and phil I love you so so much <333

Yggdrasil rules on top of the world since forever. The gigantic black tower trimmed by mirror walls, guardian of Mana's stones, queen of the continent, and root of human civilization.

Mana’s stones hold both illness and recovery. Whoever challenges Mana’s power will immediately be turned into a statue of shimmering stones for eternity. Only Mana decides what he takes and what he leaves.

_*_

_During the flood that had submerged the world, only Yggdrasil had been allowed to survive. The rising waters led the Leviathans right at the gate of the town, and humans used the stones to turn them into a multitude of terrifying gemstones, frozen out of time and water._

_The inhabitants of Yggdrasil paid a high price for Mana's protection. Soon after defeating most of the Leviathans, men and women succumbed to the stones' disease. Rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds came out from under their skin and made it crackle until they slowly became statues as well._

_Thereby, Yggdrasil's last humans didn't come close to the stones anymore, accepting their punishment for their pride and sacrificing some of their own to Mana’s glory._

_Only Mana decides what he takes and what he leaves._

_However, a legend forgotten by the different kings tells of Mana's son, who would one day be able to find his father’s treasure. Sent by Mana to put an end to the curse, he would hold the power of recovery that has been taken away from humans..._

_*_

At the bottom of Mana’s tower, fortress armed to the teeth, standing proudly at the north of Yggdrasil's island-city, four figures stood out in the reddish gleam of torches. The tallest of them was a bit further from his comrades, perched on the guardrail of the stone bridge that let people cross the internal moat; the one that surrounded Mana’s tower. He stood guard for his crew, a huge metal slab at his feet, indicating the sewers’ exit that they had gone through to bypass the tower’s entry in order to outdo Mana’s guards. A small and simple gate had been dug in the volcanic rock, polished until it looked like an ebony mirror. From the pieces of information they got, it would allow them to enter the tower by taking the old duct that used to discharge trash; from the time people made of blood and flesh still lived in it. Before Mana’s stones took over the power on the city-world. One of them, stockier, was trying to pick the lock while the smallest of the four men was watching him, motionless against the wind, covered by a thick jacket that would’ve looked like some royal attire if it hadn’t been so damaged by wind, fire, and all those fights. The substitute guard had to resist the urge to look back, as well as the small thief when the fourth man went against their captain, who briefly stopped supervising the mission. Brief moment that was lethal to him, since the second he stopped focusing, his vision blurred, and he nearly staggered in front of Seonghwa, who was still waiting for an answer: 

“ _Are you really going to stop now?”_

Hongjoong stared at Seonghwa without really seeing him, his gaze ignoring him as if he were a ghost, focused on San’s true spirit projected by his mind behind his lifelong companion. The door behind him was cracking and squeaking as Jongho was still picking the lock, his back was facing the bidimensional scene unfolding only meters from him.

“Do you really want to keep going?”

The height difference between Hongjoong and his second in command had never been so apparent as Seonghwa turned an angry glare at him, inflamed by rage and by the reflection of the guard’s torches that were relentlessly coming closer.

“We’ve never been this close to our goal, Seonghwa. Move aside.”

Captain Kim’s voice would have frozen the blood of anyone who hadn’t known him when he was still human. Seonghwa used to navigate at his sides, plundering so many vessels and fighting on equal footing against their enemies, like an endless game, at a time where laws kept men together, without them ever having a reason to directly despise each other. It was the game of piracy, the one of survival, of navigation, that needed it. It was a fair play.

“We’ve never been this far from it, from what I can see,” the second in command Park retorted, crossing his arms against his chest, staying put.

“I did it!” Jongho exclaimed after a few seconds of deadly silence weighing on them, holding the two ends of the door’s chain in each hand and looking at his captain.

“Let me through.”

Hongjoong’s hand was tensed on his saber as the distant noise of boots stomping on the cobblestones arose. The guard would be soon within firing range. Behind him, Mingi checked his pistol’s gunpowder, and Hongjoong nearly could make out the way his long fingers contracted against the trigger.

“ _You knew you’d have to make sacrifices to get here. Sacrifices like me,”_ San whispered, still holding this huge black flag with no motif in his arms as if it was a ship flag. 

“You can’t be serious,” Seonghwa stated, incredulous, pointing with his chin the handle of his captain’s saber.

“Seonghwa, it’s the last time I ask you. Let me through.”

“The door is open!” Jongho shouted, his dark eyes glowing in the darkness. “If we stay here like idiots, we’re going to die!”

Hongjoong unsheathed his saber without wavering or diverting his eyes from his second’s.

“ _I think he doesn’t want to die today,”_ San said, shrugging. 

“I need what’s at the top of this tower, I’m doing it for us.”

“You’re just betraying yourself. You’re here for yourself, not us.”

“I won’t let you make everything we sacrificed just to get to this fucking fortress go to waste, get out this bridge!”

Seonghwa waited for his captain to touch his throat with his blade before a smirk appeared on his face, both disgusted and carrying an unfathomable sadness.

“I don’t think a man who sacrifices his owns to save himself deserves redemption. I followed you, hoping that one day I’d know if I was also mere livestock to you or if you were still able to make some difference… If you were worthy. Yeosang believed it, San believed it, Wooyoung believed it.”

The captain’s saber shook as Seonghwa’s authoritarian hand lowered it, before eventually moving aside, pushing Mingi to the bridge's side before leaving without looking back.

“Seonghwa!” Jongho yelled, his voice nearly cracking.

“Where are you going?” Mingi panicked as captain Yunho’s guard came dangerously close, and while Hongjoong was still staring at something in front of him, right before Jongho’s figure.

“To get Yeosang back,” the pirate spat out before disappearing, jumping on a floating platform.

*

No obscurity, as dark as it was, could stop Yeosang. The young pirate’s eyes had gotten used to the dark many years ago, having grown up during his first twenty years in the sewers of the city-world that was Yggdrasil, blending with the hordes of rats and into the murmur of water. Rushing to the opposite direction from Captain Yunho’s guard’s boots, he was trying not to think about what he had left behind, those he had left to their fate. Giving up on Captain Kim and his crew’s treasure had cost him what felt like his own flesh and guts, however, he knew that leaving Wooyoung behind would have sealed his own downfall. This choice, his body had done it for him, unable to live on without his other half, without the one who had kept him alive when they didn’t even have a name yet. Nonetheless, those names they proudly sported now like two human beings were given by Captain Kim, the only one that had given them a reason to exist.

Out-of-breath, Yeosang leaned against the wall and closed his burning eyelids. The sound of the guards' steps was getting more and more distant, and he only had his hands to pray that nothing would happen to the crew's remnants. With the Etrian, their ship, riddled with bullets and the engine oil spilled into a puddle on the floor, there wasn’t any chance they would make it out alive if they didn’t get to the treasure. From now on, the Etrian was merely a useless scrapheap abandoned in the surroundings of the fortress that fiercely shielded Mana’s stones. This was probably a one-way trip. When Captain Kim had composed his crew of seven outlaws, he hadn’t lied to them about his primary goal. Yeosang would always remember the shiver of horror and fascination that spread all over his body when Hongjoong had slowly unbuttoned his shirt to reveal his chest riddled with colorful gemstones, shimmering and rimmed with scar tissue, as if they had been carved into the captain’s skin.

Yeosang and Wooyoung were children of the sewers, left alone there after their parents’ disappearance – probably a prostitute who hadn’t dared to kill her own baby or a couple that had been cursed by Mana and turned into gemstones. Hidden in the shadows, they had never known anything else than this dark universe before Wooyoung was arrested by the guard because he had illegally wandered to the surface. Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and Mingi had destroyed the prison cages hanging on the edge of the ramparts four years ago, to hire anyone who wished to find redemption at the risk of their lives; and so, the two rats became humans. But despite the eternal gratefulness that united them to their captain, it didn’t measure up to Yeosang’s guts that howled with distress since he had seen his only one real brother be snatched away from him when they fled their ship after a disastrous landing.

The pirate waited until the troops had entirely vanished into a deadly silence before he eventually dared to climb up the ladder towards the surface. Confident, he didn't expect the grip that brutally dragged him out the tunnel by the collar to throw him onto the cobblestones, a knee pressed against his throat, and a riffle pointed against his temple.

“The captain was right. You hide in the walls and underground just like vermin.”

The guard’s voice was clear, even with the assembly of chains that hid the lower half of his face. Wooyoung would surely have retorted some cutting remark, but Yeosang settled with glaring back at him while his heart raced in his chest so fast that it nearly made him sick. He couldn’t stop there. The clicking sound from the riffle resounded in his ears like a deserted cathedral’s bell, and Wooyoung’s picture vanished in his mind, and it dawned on him he hadn’t considered being unable to bid farewell to Seonghwa. The second in command had pulled them out of the moat’s water when their jail had blown up, and then he had taught them how to speak during long months spent in the air learning how to be pirates outside of the sewers. He had hauled him up on the Etrian while Yeosang held back Wooyoung by the waist with all the strength he had in his still thin arms, ignoring the latter’s desperate screeches and how violently he was struggling, his eyes fixed to San, who was sinking into the black waters. Finally, when it was Wooyoung's time to disappear in flames, restrained by the chains the guards had thrown at him, Seonghwa had pulled Yeosang with all his strength towards the fortress’ first flight of stairs.

Like dominoes, the Etrian’s crew was slowly reduced to nothing, beaten and fallen the more their quest progressed, just like a ship cutting down on the goods to make it to the destination. Seonghwa had been the best second in command for the captain Kim Hongjoong, but even his iron will wasn't enough to protect his crew. Yeosang had made him the silent promise, with one last glance, that he’d ward off bad luck when it was time to let go of the hand that was still squeezing his with rage. He promised himself to free Wooyoung and then run at the bottom of the fortress through the sewers, just in time to see his crew come back with their loot. He had wanted to be the one who would reunite them all, for San, Seonghwa, and their freedom, for which they learned to fight.

As the guard’s hands pushed against his throat to hold him down, Yeosang shut his eyes, deliberately refusing to look at his failure onward, the last look Seonghwa had sent him still dancing behind his closed lids. But as his ears started to buzz and his heart seemed like it was vibrating instead of beating; the bullet never went through his head.

When the pirate opened his eyes again after what felt like an eternity of waiting for a pathetic death, he choked from astonishment as he made out Seonghwa’s figure. His black hair entangled in front of his face twisted by panic, he pointed his own pistol to the guard’s head, still holding Yeosang down.

“Let him go. Now.”

*

Mingi was bringing up the rear, Hongjoong was leading them, and Jongho, between the last two members of his crew, kept an eye to his captain’s slumped back. Their quiet ascent let doubts and distress resound like some ghostly echoes that would haunt them forever. Seonghwa’s words were still bouncing back and forth against the smooth black walls of Mana’s tower, and Jongho knew they were pounding even more loudly in Hongjoong’s mind, stressed by those of an illusory San; and Jongho couldn’t do anything. He hardly repressed the urge to shout at him to stop, to climb the few steps separating him from his captain to squeeze him in his arms and talk to him, talk to him again until he’d muffle all the voices that were about to drive him mad. Or at least, madder than he had already been to begin this hopeless quest.

Jongho loved the crazed glint in Hongjoong’s gaze, moments where his tiger-like pupils were sparkling in the opal of his skin adorned with colored shards, he loved to see his captain burn like the fire of Hell and to happily throw himself into his flames. He loved the way Hongjoong looked at him, unlike everyone else when the storm subdued, and he simply looked tired, worried, but mostly peaceful and gentle; he loved to be the resting place he came to after his mind was done torturing him. When the captain’s bare and bony arms were grasping at Jongho’s shoulders to draw wings there with his nails, he felt alive; when the cold gemstones’ sharp edges that poked out his body wounded his own, he felt loved. From a love that was both destructive and protective, born of passion as well as redemption.

Nothing of their relationship had been kept a secret, ever, still, it had always stayed within their own intimacy. They had never acted like a couple before the Etrian's crew's eyes, without ever talking about it beforehand. Yet, all of them had understood and had silently accepted this unparalleled bond that their captain had forged with a nameless man, recruited in the temple that was training young guards. Though by a twist of fate, Hongjoong was the one who hated the royal guard the most among them, and at first, Jongho had been nothing but a hostage, kept to quench his hatred towards the nastiest captain that pirates from the whole island had fought with: Jeong Yunho. If Jongho had been scared of the captain Hongjoong, ready to hurt him as long as it was needed, perhaps nothing would have changed. But the young man had looked at his elder with a unique softness, appealing and ready to forgive everything, even if he had no reason to. Jongho had gotten hit when he had whispered to Hongjoong that the only one person he had known who was as angry as he was, was captain Yunho, but had smiled when the captain had begun to cry all of a sudden, letting his arms fall to his sides, standing like a dead tree in the middle of the empty room, in the depths of the Etrian. Jongho had stretched out the hand that wasn’t cuffed to the wall, and bending his body like a bow’s string, he had craned himself to take Hongjoong’s hand, jumping without fear into the eye of the cyclone.

He knew his captain suffered from Mana's disease and had willingly dedicated himself to the fight for the stones’ theft, desiring to do everything he could to heal him, him, and all the people turned into statues who haunted the corridors of the temple where he had grown up. There had to be a starting point, and Jongho had promised himself to make healing his captain above anything else a matter of honor, captain he had sworn to get out of the darkness of his own mind ever since their eyes met for the first time. He shook at the idea that Hongjoong could be a victim of his own self before they’d make it to their goal, and Seonghwa’s rejection had made him waver, to the point that his fall was a danger far more imminent than the guard, at the moment. Because finding Mana’s stones and stealing them was far from being the end of this journey; no one knew how to use Mana’s stones. Going by the temple’s guards and the preachers’ words, Mana’s son was the only one capable of it, a chosen person who would be randomly born, the day Mana would have finally decided that humanity’s torment could come to an end. Hongjoong seemed convinced that there was another way to use the stones for their own benefit, arguing that he had witnessed the sudden transformation of some of his enemies into statues; which meant that they had been cast a spell but hadn't fallen ill, like he had.

Even though, for now, and all of them knew it, the Etrian’s crew was rushing headfirst into a useless theft, without even the smallest shadow of solution or spell that could change anything. It wasn’t hard for Jongho to understand Seonghwa’s anger, his feeling that all their horrible sacrifices had been vain. If this strange yet implacable trust he had for Hongjoong didn’t keep his heart linked to his quest, Jongho would have shared his view. Now, he could only pray that his companions would find a way to survive and safely find shelter. It couldn’t be different, Jongho needed this faith, he needed to trust Seonghwa and Yeosang, to trust Hongjoong; he needed to believe that the stars were still shining behind the black smog covering Yggdrasil since the cataclysm that had doomed their world. If he wavered, if he started to doubt or think about failure, he wouldn’t have anything left to do but jump from the top of Mana's tower. He had never been able to resolve himself into seeing darkness as a fatality, and the way Hongjoong's pupils changed when he looked at him, turning the burning lava into spring water, only ruled in his favor. If the captain was his world and his light was still perennial, Jongho was utterly convinced that it could only be the same at their huge island’s scale, victim of Mana’s curse.

A horn's sound broke this atmosphere filled with grave thoughts, and Hongjoong stopped his ascent, turning around to look towards the rear.

“How can they be so fast?”

“They live here,” Mingi answered soberly. “They’re trained to climb these stairs every day, multiple times a day, for their prayer. When we’re on the ground, we’re in their territory.”

_Their territory, not ours_ . Jongho briefly wondered when Yggdrasil's sky pirates and terrestrial guards had been split apart to that point. They were all born on earth, sometimes even in its clammy entrails, to end up viewing this black and opaque sky as their home. The hatred towards their people had somehow set them apart as a new population, and Jongho had never been as aware of it as in this instant. 

“We’re going to get killed if we stay here,” he finally stepped in, cutting off his elders.

“It’s useless to run and climb without taking care of them, we don’t have enough time to get to it,” Hongjoong said, his voice suddenly hesitant.

As he tried to put his hand on his weapon, he staggered. Jongho leaped forward, quickly climbing the steps that stood between them, to have him land on his chest. He put his hands on his ears, just like every time he knew his captain to be overcome with hallucinations stemming from guilt. He felt himself panic for good when he saw him shut his eyes and felt the heat coming from his temples under his fingers; Hongjoong was feverish and absolutely unable to fight with anyone. And definitely not the captain Yunho’s guard.

“Jongho, bring him up, I’ll take care of it.”

“Mingi?”

*

Mingi hadn’t stopped staring at Jongho and Hongjoong’s figures after making them go first. The small captain was shaking like a leaf against his lover, overcame with convulsions caused by a mix of terror, doubts, vertigo due to his hallucinations, and the pain from the gemstones tearing him apart. He pitied Hongjoong, as much as he admired him for having yet to go crazy. Or perhaps had he always been mad, enough to start this quest no one dared to skim over. Mad enough to endure the ache from the curse, the relentless pain, and the slow loss of his mobility. Mingi, Seonghwa, and the others harbored since forever a profound respect for their captain and followed him for many reasons, different depending on the crew's members; but one of them was shared by all. Hongjoong should have died a long time ago. Nothing could explain that he was still alive, still real, Mingi had even wondered a few times over if he was also living in an illusion. Hongjoong was so unreal that he seemed to be a voice in his head, his guilty conscience driving him to fight against all the rules he had known until then.

Rules, he had known a lot of them. Hundreds of rules that no one had ever taken the time to explain, yet he had to put up with, through many strokes of the stick or iron rulers. His parents had sent him relatively young to a military school meant to train the government’s guards, but Mingi had understood soon enough that it was actually made to ensure the kids wouldn’t nurture any thought opposing Mana's ideology. Eternal gratitude had to be vowed to the god, patron of Yggdrasil, a fierce devotion was required, and mostly, the notion of penitence. The young soldiers had  _O how much they had Mana to thank for their lives_ pounded into their minds, his stones having protected them from the destructive tsunami; hence they had to dedicate their lives to protecting Mana’s most precious belonging. Mingi didn’t know why he had been the only one unable to believe in the oaths he was made to spit if he didn't want to be punished. If he was entirely honest with himself, he had never believed in Hongjong and in his ideal of overthrowing Yggdrasil’s government either. It might have been the reason why he stayed when Seonghwa left; because he couldn’t feel betrayed when he was only here out of curiosity. He wanted to understand the core of the guard’s hatred, as well as he wanted to understand what enlivened captain Hongjoong, what fueled his madness. 

Mingi had always been curious about others, about humans before deities. That was what had made him continuously return to military school after running away to the city (even though his last escapade had been a one-way after joining the Etrian); he was fascinated by the cadet Jeong Yunho. They were the same age, yet he had quickly been promoted, top of his class and then young cadet of the guard. When Yunho had been given the task of taking care of Mingi and making him give up on his constant mischief (his insolent behavior with teachers, the damages he had done to the place, and of course, his regular getaways), something strange ad occurred. Mingi had wanted to believe in him, when he had never trusted his teachers, he had wanted to listen to him, to understand him. On his part, Yunho had visibly been rendered helpless by the other’s questions, that wouldn’t stop challenging everything he believed in.

“Mingi?”

The voice he had missed despite himself made the pirate eventually turn around; Hongjoong and Jongho had finally disappeared from his sight, out of the guard’s reach.

“Yunho.”

“What are you doing with them?”

He knew the question wasn’t out of surprise, Yunho had known for long that he had chosen to follow Hongjoong, and he had probably turned over and over in his bed during long nights to make sense of this choice, so odd to him. Mingi forced himself to take three deep breaths before replying, ensuring that the guard stood firm and motionless behind their captain.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“You’re defending them? Do you want to waste my time by sacrificing yourself? I don’t want to kill you, Mingi, especially if it’s useless.”

“Usefulness is a matter of viewpoint. But we already talked about this.”

They had had long debates, never-ending even, sitting on Mingi’s bed, their only light a candle that struggled not to run down of wax, or in the school's park's depths, under the shadow of a stone tree. Yunho trying to explain to his classmate that gratitude and humbleness would, without a doubt, be rewarded with redemption, and Mingi not understanding how such noble feelings could be imposed by the guard’s violence. He had argued it was quite a cruel way to act for a peaceful deity, to inflict punishment and illness to humans after saving them, to which Yunho would retort that, at least, they had been saved, with the promise of a bright tomorrow.

“He used you to get all your knowledge about this tower and the way we fight from you, and now he’s sacrificing you to be a step ahead. Pathetic.”

“I’m the one who made him leave, and who decided to stay. I told you, you can’t understand. You were never able to understand choice and freedom. Whether it was the freedom of thought or of action.”

“You think you’re free, even when facing death? How ironic. You’ve never known how to get your ideas across.”

“Is this why you have faith? Because they know how to correctly get their ideas across?”

Yunho gritted his teeth so hard that Mingi heard them gnash. They were as tall as each other, towering over the guard’s men or the Etrian’s crew, from a whole head and a half.

“You’re the only person here I don’t want to kill, Mingi, don’t put me in a bad mood. Your captain won’t get out of here alive, even if you die for him.”

“Jealous I’m not ready to die for you anymore?”

The gunshot burned one of Mingi's locks. His heart was heavy and loud as if it had swelled to go up to his throat. He could almost taste blood, metallic and salty, on his tongue. When Yunho ordered the first guards to climb, Mingi shot them without glancing at them, staying put, defying his old mate. After being irreversibly wounded in the legs, the soldiers' groans broke the silence that had settled upon the two men.

“Why are you trying so hard not to kill me? I won’t move even the hundredth time you’ll order it.”

That was why he had stayed behind his comrades. He didn’t have any faith in Mana’s good deeds, he didn’t have any faith in his captain’s ability to activate the gemstones with power either, but he had faith in humanity. He had faith in himself, in what characterized him profoundly, and he knew that each man, each woman, each person was made the same way he was. He knew Yunho had wanted to see him again and to bring him back to his side the same way he had wanted it, the day he left. He knew that what made him hate pirates, now, was a wish for revenge that was entirely too human. Yunho was lying to himself, pretending his faith in Mana legitimized his acts, but the truth was, Mingi know he had always been looking for him. He had accused Hongjoong of stealing his companion, his junior, whom he had promised himself to protect, and he was angry at Mingi for leaving him alone. Debating and continuously talking with Mingi, during years, had reinforced some of his ideas and allowed him to grow new ones. Slowly but surely, Mingi had become a cornerstone far more tangible than the nebulous teachings of Mana spread by the preachers; but when the latter had run away, unable to resist the golden opportunity of knowing more about the other side of his world, Yunho had given in to anger and loneliness. He wasn't that hard to understand, this captain who was as crazy as the pirate he was chasing down, and it was undoubtedly the subtle tenderness, crossed with defiance, in Mingi’s eyes that made him shoot again.

This time, he reached his target, and Mingi flew to the wall with a cry, a sharp pain spreading from his stomach making him lose his balance.

“Then, so be it,” Yunho’s voice enunciated, while it still sounded weirdly thick.

Mingi bit his cheek until he felt the taste of blood for good, spitting it out to the ground, at the guard’s chief’s feet, ready to resist as long as he could.

*

Wooyoung had already gone to jail. He had been suspended in a cage above Yggdrasil’s external moat; a defensive wall circled the city, but it had been built a few meters further away from the first flooded spot. Thereby a large ditch, filled with water, surrounded the lower part of Yggdrasil, helping both to evacuate the sewers and, most importantly, to avoid that the prisoners they suspended directly above the water would escape. That being done, they couldn't jump out of their cages if, by any miracle, they managed to open the door, and they could hardly get any help from the outside since no one was able to climb without swimming, and thus get spotted by the guard.

He had already been locked inside one of those hanging cages after having stolen food, a tragically common fate for orphans like Yeosang and him, who usually didn't get to live very old. It was frequent that the militia would forget about its prisoners, or that the kids would simply die of hunger in the streets. Living on a rocky island in the middle of a sterile ocean, void of resources, couldn’t feed everyone who had avoided Mana's disease. In some way, perhaps that the illness was a blessing, a way to randomly sort the population out so those who remained could share their meals without having to worry over choosing who got to eat. Thus was how the majority of Yggdrasil thought, having hardly survived for nearly a hundred years thanks to the production of the trees planted in the city, and the expeditions with the flying ships to find fish in the proper ocean. Far from the Leviathans, a few days of flight away from Yggdrasil, the water was still abundant, and it was still possible to catch fish and seaweed. Fishing expeditions cost a lot of time and energy, risky due to low fuel production, and many fishermen turned to the black market or even pillaged the government's precious vessels.

San was a kid of the surface, a child of the day, with his two parents and safe from the jewels' purge. He was the sun when Wooyoung was the moon; at least for the little knowledge he had of celestial bodies, black and red clouds darkening the horizon even before his birth. After their release thanks to Hongjoong and Seonghwa, who had one day unhooked every prisoner by melting as many jail bars they could to recruit a crew, Yeosang and Wooyoung hadn't known what to think of the Etrian's pilot. The small man was always smiling, friendly, calm, attentive, and oddly respectful and patient. He had looked fascinated by the strange way the other two communicated, with bits of words and precise gestures, and wouldn't stop staring at them when they were "speaking". Upon consideration, he had mostly been staring at Wooyoung, but the latter didn't realize it at first. To the point of view of the untamed child that Wooyoung was, San had only seemed like a spoiled kid who saw him as a beast from the zoo, and he hadn't liked it too much. Yeosang was spending more and more time with Seonghwa, suddenly eager to learn how to read and speak the language of the surface – the only language known, actually – whereas his companion had kept at a distance, even running away to hide on the vassal's deck. And on the vassal’s deck, there had been San, in the pilot’s seat, watching him from the corner of his eye, a smirk on his lips. He had let him come closer like a wild animal during nights, while Wooyoung had quietly learned, to reassure himself, how to navigate in the wind, in the sky, and slowly forgot the wet and dark tunnels that had brought him up.

Lost in thought, Wooyoung tried to bring a hand to his face to wipe a tear that had spilled on his cheek, and he winced from pain when the thick chain he had forgotten made his wounds ache again. His arms bound to the walls, stretched out by the chains wrapped around his limbs, his back bare, half-naked from the whiplashes he had received to extract any piece of information about his crew from him, he was now merely a prisoner like another. He was practically sure he would end up hanged once his crew-mates were dead or on the run, and he could only hope they wouldn't meet in the world of the dead. He wished he could only meet San there. 

"You can't talk, but I know you understand. You wouldn’t be part of this operation if you were completely dumb, you savage."

Wooyoung didn't even spare a glance at the officer trying to attract his attention to answer him with his jaw clenched:

"You catch never Captain Hongjoong."

"He doesn't speak so badly, for an illiterate,” a second man pointed out, his voice broken by effort, making Wooyoung furrow his eyebrows.

"Even if your captain manages to use the stones for himself, you’ll lose. You can't save everyone unless you find a way to tell us how to catch them. We will let you all live if they don’t break in the tower."

Wooyoung let a smirk stretch his lips, before spitting blood at the soldier's feet, as an unequivocal answer.

"Fine. I expected that. You'll surely be more talkative with your friend."

The pirates frowned. He had expected new hits, shouts, insults. An icy weight pressed down his chest as he wondered with horror who had been captured this time,  _please, not Yeosang_ , and he eventually raised his head. His breath was taken away when the horror of the situation dawned on him, and his chains jingled on his bloody wrists as he made a gesture to rush towards the two soldiers, his teeth bared like an animal ready to bite. A diamond statue, adorned with yellow, black, and ocher stones, stood on a makeshift wooden pedestal before him. A figure whose features were San's, frozen with his mouth open like a drowning man struggling to breathe. 

*

"It's there. It's the last staircase."

Hongjoong's voice was shaky yet steady at the same time, in a superhuman effort not to rush through the black staircase, overlooking the drop below, that would finally lead them to the stones. Measure was a wise reflex because it was hard to believe the structure remained standing, in the air, just wide enough for one person to go up without losing their balance. There weren't any columns to support it from the base, nor any chains to hold it from above. It was just a sculpture erected towards a simple door, which led to a room directly dug in the tower’s ceiling. A long time ago, humans had hollowed out this colossal tower made of volcanic stones, a gigantic stalagmite emerging from the ocean like a lighthouse, to build a city around it, Yggdrasil. It appeared that the space containing Mana's stones was a part of the highest point, scooped directly into what was the tower's roof.

"It's too small," Jongho objected to the order he was expecting from his captain, "there won't have enough time for us both to climb before getting shoot. It'd be better for you to go, I'll wait for you here."

Hongjoong eventually lowered his head, his eyes leaving the stairs' peak, with a smirk that sent chills to Jongho’s whole body when he finally turned his head towards him. His captain had always carried this mysterious aura, and when it was sometimes entirely impossible to understand him, it made him feel dizzy. Usually, he would have given him time to think about how to express his thoughts, but the time Mingi was buying them was limited. Jongho came closer to whisper at him:

"It's there, up there. Go take it. You finally have the chance to heal yourself."

Hongjoong faced him, bringing their faces just a breath apart, and his mad captain smile morphed into something fond, tender, a look Jongho had already seen on him, admittedly, but never with such strength and sincerity that twisted his heart.

"No. You, go. I'll hold the guard back for however much time you need."

The young man frowned and lifted a hand to rest it against his captain’s neck, hoping the strokes he was running there would calm what he thought was folly.

"Hongjoong… This is what you’ve always wanted, what you’ve been looking for your whole life… This is the treasure we all came to steal, we followed you this whole time to see our captain claim Mana's stones, and live.”

Hongjoong dived into Jongho's gaze, and the latter was rendered more and more helpless by what he saw inside. He couldn't understand why the only meaning he found of all the distress and the love held inside his captain's pupils, was him letting go. Letting go of their quest, but of himself as well, into his arms that naturally embraced him when he let himself go against Jongho, his forehead bumping against his nose, his closed eyes locking the secrets they held.

"Live with me," Jongho said with a reedy voice, nuzzling his nose in Hongjoong's pearly-white hair as he held him tight, in a useless attempt to avoid the farewell he felt coming.

Mana's tower was as silent as death, and the two men knew it wouldn't last. However, despite themselves, it felt unimaginable for them to part ways before being forced to and under duress, afraid to lose their precious time, that was limited.

"Is this why you think we came here?" Hongjoong whispered, his voice too hoarse to speak louder.

Jongho moved a bit aside to find his gaze, not understanding what he meant.

"You too, like Seonghwa… Do you believe I only came for myself? To heal myself, even if it means sacrificing all of you?"

“Hongjoong…"

The captain's eyes weren’t void of their strength and determination yet, and his lover had a hard time figuring out what he meant.

"I've always told you we’d get the stones for us. That we’d do anything we want with them, that we’d be a team. When I was leading you, I've never asked of you to fight to save me. I… I want us to overthrow this city together, for the like of me to stop dying foolishly, frozen for eternity for a cruel deity’s sake."

His two hands flat against Jongho's chest, he looked even smaller than usual. Even smaller than when he tried to become one with Jongho’s body in their ship's cabin, leaving for San to take charge for the night. Even smaller than when he was holding himself back from crying as his lover delicately brushed his fingers against the jewels tearing his skin apart, ignoring the red scratches and bloody wounds marking his own body after making love to this captain made of stones. Even smaller than when he had curled up on himself after losing San, then Wooyoung's sacrifice, and so forth, until he made himself more fragile and minute than ever in Jongho's arms, who he couldn’t possibly leave behind.

"Seonghwa must be right…" The captain Kim sadly snickered, "I served you a bunch of lies on a silver plate to hide my selfishness…"

"Hongjoong."

Jongho spread his hands on each side of his lover's face to keep him facing him. He brought himself as close as he could without kissing him yet.

"I know it’s isn’t true. I trust you. But I don't care, here and now, what I want is to save you. What we do with the stones then… it doesn’t matter. All I want for now is to get rid of yours. So you’re going to climb these damn stairs, take the stones, and come back to me to get the others. I will buy you some time."

"Do you really think we can have it all? Pull this off, stay alive, and find everybody back?"

Jongho's eyes were burning already, but he felt his tears threaten to fall for good when he heard a distant hammering, sign that the guard, or at least what remained of it, was speeding up the clock. He clenched his teeth until it hurt and threw himself to Hongjoong's lips as if it was the last time – it probably was. His captain’s hands grasped at his hair, probably tearing off some locks, as desperate as him before he suddenly stepped away while pushing him backward. Jongho barely had enough time to come to his senses that he realized Hongjoong was rushing towards the door in the opposite direction of the stones, to the guard.

"HONGJOONG!"

"Go, idiot, the seconds are ticking!" he retorted.

He turned around one last time to look at him with a smile, a crazed smile.

"I’ll resist longer than you, their swords will rebound against my stones."

Jongho muffled a chuckle filled with tears, before hauling himself on the slippery steps, a growing ball of nerves in his stomach as he refused to think of what he might see the next time he would look downstairs.

*

"Not cry, Wooyoung, not cry… Not cry, San."

The chained up pirate mumbled to himself without a stop, vainly trying to fight the emotions wringing his throat. The statue of his companion placed where he couldn’t avoid it in front of him had shattered his arrogant and defying mask, and when the soldiers had closed the door behind them, he had had to bite his lip until he drew blood not to spill any tears. Moved by some sort of incredible self-control, since San wasn't actually there with him, Wooyoung was still talking to him as much as to the emptiness surrounding him, swinging from resignation to hope that he could hear him, despite everything.

"You here still, huh? San not dead…" He muttered, keeping his eyes riveted to the black ground, covered in dried blood and muddy boots’ prints.

His chains faintly jingled as he sniffed.

"No talk, but I know… Still here. No statue if not still here…"

Wooyoung never talked; it was the reason behind his syntax, grammar, and vocabulary's poorness. He didn't speak to Yeosang, but to call his name, and he had always let him communicate with the others for him. With no signs to express his ideas and feelings, he talked through a few gestures, and had gotten used to yield to orders when he agreed with them, or to simply leave when it wasn't the case. He didn't even talk to San, when they spent most of the night together in the control room. He let the pilot explain to him the engines’ mechanics, following his gestures with his eyes, he let him talk about the places they had explored, or the stories the Etrian’s crew shared. He liked listening to San, despite the initial distrust he had had for him. He liked the sound of his voice and the variety of the tones it held, the way its notes played like music during his accounts. He liked the energy and emotions the pilot shared through his voice as if he passionately lived everything he recounted. He expressed himself slowly, with a deep and serious voice, when he talked about his ship, aware that these concrete notions were both intricate and precise. However, there was a kind of enthusiastic haste when he spoke of Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Mingi, a peculiar rhythm that created pictures in Wooyoung's mind as he listened to him.

"You are hurt? Me… Yes… It hurts…"

His wounds were bloody on his wrist, near the handcuffs. The cold of his cell was biting at the gaping cuts on his back that had been left by the guards' whip. His knees couldn't reach the ground to rest and support his whole body, thus his thighs' muscles were making him suffer from numerous cramps as he was desperately trying to find a bearable position.

"But even if it hurts…Happy. Happy to be with San."

He remembered when San had told him about the engraving on Yggdrasil’s walls that the first three pirates had dug to recruit new members in their crew; that was how Mingi had found the Etrian. San had been the pilot of this ship, whereas Hongjoong and Seonghwa were still explorers commissioned by the government to go fishing in the foreign seas, far from the Leviathans’ territory, and from the death brought by the cataclysm that had destroyed Yggdrasil. On an umpteenth empty-handed return, after Hongjoong had gotten sick, they had made the Etrian land in a place kept secret and had wandered into the city to recruit a mutinous crew. That was how they had broken into Wooyoung and Yeosang’s jails, that Mingi had joined them, and that, eventually, they had taken off after capturing Jongho, when they had been found out by Mana’s preachers who then attacked them. 

"You…speak…Missing. Missing to me."

Wooyoung gathered all his strength to fill his cell's space with the words San couldn't pronounce anymore, now.

"I not leave you. Promise, San."

He raised his red-rimmed eyes towards the prison's door.

"Hope Yeosang is fine. Thank you, San. Thank you be with me."

*

"Do you think they will get by fine?"

Yeosang's quiet voice and the guilt oozing from it made Seonghwa clench his jaw, as they crammed inside a too narrow, but at least dry tunnel. They had managed to sneak in the palace’s air ducts, where Wooyoung was probably kept under lock.

"I don't know. I don't want to think about it."

The air inside the duct was freezing cold, and the two men were squeezed against each other, intending to hide for a few hours and eat the remaining of their food stock while they tried to elaborate an operational plan.

"Why did you come to get us?" Yeosang asked with a broken voice.

Seonghwa lowered his eyes to look at the way he hunched his shoulders, close to him.

“I’d like to say I thought about saving Wooyoung when I left, but I think that ‘coming to get _you_ ’ would be more accurate.”

Yeosang gave no answer. The second in command of the Etrian’s crew knew he should have felt his heart hammer in his ribcage and ruin all his mental capacities, as it had often happened when the young pirate expressed wonder after succeeding to devour a text, or a fish, wholly. Each time Yeosang had turned towards him as if to share all of his happy moments, when he discovered the world, all of it was carved in Seonghwa’s mind like one of the books he had stolen flying away in the Etrian at Hongjoong's side. He should've felt all this again, if only his entire being wasn't torn with anxiety and regrets; regrets to have abandoned his lifelong companion like Yeosang and Wooyoung would have never done, regrets to have given up on a life's quest so close to the goal, regrets not to have shown Yeosang to what extent he was important earlier. Earlier, faster, so he could have had as much time as Hongjoong and Jongho, before walking into the lion's den. The thought crossed Seonghwa's mind that he was in fact merely a coward, a wimp who fled before every hardship that crossed his path, hiding behind Hongjoong for most of his life, leaving his shadow only to run from a greater danger, the one that was Mana's tower. And now, hiding in a tunnel where even Yeosang could barely stand straight, he still couldn't get himself to confess to the latter that in his eyes, he was worth more than one thousand or so treasures, rendered vain every single pirate’s quests, and made him forget the taste of his best meals when he smiled while looking at him in the eyes.

Time stopped when Yeosang wrapped his arms around him and then rested his cheek in the crook of his shoulder, completely snuggling against him.

“Thanks.”

“Thanks?”

Seonghwa felt how husky his voice was, his throat was like glass paper.

“You don’t think I’m despicable?”

Yeosang’s fingers were drawing random shapes on his biceps, thoughtful.

“Not any more than me. You didn’t do anything worse than I did, you tried to protect us when the captain was losing his footing… and now you’re alive, and I am too, thanks to you. Because you came to get me. You saved my life, and I know it’s not the first time. Without you, we would’ve drowned, with Wooyoung, when he tried to save San, and I would probably have been burned alive when I tried to run to Wooyoung. You may not be shaped to be a captain, but you are, and have always been our pillar. If there’s anyone left on this island to rebuilt the Etrian and fly away with the stones, it would be thanks to you.”

“How…”

"Even if Hongjoong succeeds in using the stones' power, which looks to be impossible, he will never be able to fix the ship alone."

Seonghwa finally locked eyes with the other pirate, who had raised his face to put his chin on his shoulder. He was smiling, with a softness that seemed entirely inappropriate, misplaced, absurd. He was smiling at Seonghwa, and there was hope in the depths of his eyes, a magical light, inside his pupils' dark night, a sheer strength that nothing could move as long as he was still alive to look back at the world.

“All departures aren’t one way, you’re the one who taught me this,” he eventually finished, and Seonghwa couldn’t find anything to reply.

Yeosang's mouth was still grinning as if he had expected to meet Seonghwa's in a kiss that tasted like fire and salt. The tall pirate towered above him while Yeosang's back perfectly fit against the tunnel's curved wall, his arms holding Seonghwa's against himself with incredible strength. He was hanging at him like a drowned man who had just reached the surface, and he stretched his neck to dive in his lips with even more thirst, so much that by hauling and stretching himself up, he almost ended up hovering in the air, pushed against the upper wall, lifted by Seonghwa, who was nearly fully standing and wouldn’t stop kissing him like his life depended on it.

*

Yunho knew Mana's tower well enough that his hearing could make out the distant noises of shotguns and swords' steel clashing. He wasn't wounded but had sent his guards before him to take captain Hongjoong down, while he had claimed he would finish Mingi off. He wasn't surprised to realize that he couldn't do it, as his dagger pressed harder and harder against the latter's throat, wholly unconscious after getting shot multiple times in the stomach.

Mingi was bleeding out, slowly but surely, in his arms. Even if the guard’s captain had been able to put an end to his life, his fate was already sealed. He had gotten back up four times, each time riveting his gaze to his old companion's one; Yunho was sure that Mingi's eyes would forever haunt him from now on. The only one for whom he had agreed to believe in anything else than what had been pounded into his brain ever since he had been old enough to speak. The only one for whom he had been able to let go of his deep-rooted hate for captain Hongjoong, as if nothing made sense, mattered and interested him anymore; if Mingi wasn't here. To conclude that his thirst for revenge against Hongjoong was due to Yunho's fervent desire to find his companion again, there was only one last limit that he wasn't yet ready to step over, even in this instant.

Yunho’s eyes were traveling back and forth between Mingi and the tower’s stairs, and his hand relaxed its grip on his dagger at the same time. A clinking sound resounded when it fell down to the ground, while Yunho stood up, carrying Mingi’s body against him, just like a sleepy princess at the end of a fairy tale. Tale that was quite dark. And the princess quite grim, leaving a trail of blood behind each of the captain’s steps; captain who escaped the tower without a glance behind, having found as well what he had wanted to steal more than anything.

*

Mana’s tower had become silent. The weapons were stuck to the walls or the ground, covered in blood or shattered into mirror pieces. With the few statues to Yggdrasil's ancient deities' glory, from before Mana's monotheist cult overtook the temples, as sole witnesses of the fights that had taken place in this sacred place. It seemed to Hongjoong that the sky was darker than the usual, from what he could see behind his heavy eyelids. The floor's hard and cold touch was frightfully painful against the stones that pocked out his skin, their number more abundant than ever – it felt like some of them had flourished, like dreadful flowers, during the battle. His hand gripping his saber, he kept his eyes riveted to the tall and narrow window, where a bit of its blue curtain had been torn away during this merciless fight.

He had killed them all. Each one of the guards who had dared to come too close to the stairs that stood between them and Jongho, each one of the soldiers who had tried to reach him, all of them had succumbed to his belligerence; not without a fight, though. The Etrian's captain was hurt in many places, and the unpleasant sensation that he was drowning in his own blood would have made him wince if he wasn't already trying to hold back painful moans from his curse, as it reached its last stage. He felt like he was choking, his throat filled with gravels and his limbs made heavy by the rubies and diamonds that were quickly turning him into a statue. If he couldn’t see Jongho one last time before going down, Hongjoong hoped to bury his mind in the apocalyptic sky that had been his home for so long, until his end.

However, as if his lover had heard his agony, the sound of hurried steps reached his buzzing ears. Hongjoong felt himself be lifted up with care that would have made him cry, if Jongho’s tears weren’t already running down his cheeks; a few of them falling directly to the captain’s face as he turned his gaze to him.

“Why?” Jongho said with difficulty, his voice barely audible.

Sitting on the ground, he had laid Hongjoong's head on his lap and was running his fingers through his hair, on his cheeks, his eyes, his lips. The captain's hand let his weapon go, and he closed his eyes a few seconds.

“Because you’re more important than I am,” he merely answered, the shadow of a smile on his tired face.

“I am important in your eyes,” Jongho sighed, “I’m important because you love me, if you’re not here anymore, it doesn’t make any more sense.”

A rictus tugged on Hongjoong’s large mouth, always more impressive because of how thin his face was. He put all his strength into one of his arms to raise it and stroke his lover’s face as well, his amusement suddenly morphing into infinite tenderness.

“If only… If only you had given me more time… Just enough to understand how they work…”

“You already saved me, Jongho,” his captain interrupted him.

“If it’s a metaphor, idiot, I love you too, but it’s not really the time and place to-”

“Did you ever wonder why I was given this much time? Why am I still alive to tell you all of this?”

Jongho's features expressed nothing but confusion. He linked his hand to his lover's to keep it from falling and closed his mouth, hoping that Hongjoong would eventually elaborate. The latter coughed with trouble before he continued:

“The first time you stayed in my cabin… There was an emerald at the base of my neck, on the right shoulder. I remember because it was my only green stone.”

He was shaken by a small chuckle when he realized this kind of consideration's vacuousness.

"I remember, too," Jongho murmured, furrowing his eyebrows, "and?"

"You slept a lot that morning, and I moved around so much in your arms while trying to find a comfortable position, I realized it wasn’t here anymore.”

Silence weighed upon the big hall again for a few seconds.

“I guess it must happen that some stones move, or that…”

“Since then, every time you stayed with me, I started counting all of my wounds. At your side, some of them began to disappear. Every morning, I was lighter, it was easier to breathe. Every time you kiss me, I feel alive, and I’m sure of one thing, it’s that it’s far from being a metaphor.”

“What are you saying…”

Jongho’s voice was reedy.

“No one could know, not even you. I didn’t want you to be in danger, I didn’t want to risk a member of the crew being a spy, or spilling this information if they were caught. I wouldn’t have taken any risk that could’ve cost our lives. And when I say our, I’m talking of humanity as a whole, all of Yggdrasil’s people who are stuck in this cursed island.”

“Hongjoong…”

The young pirate’s arms weakened with shock, and Hongjoong almost dropped down to the ground – Jongho caught him back right in time, lifting him this time just enough to hold his head against his heart. A truly relieved grin stretched the captain’s lips, who closed his eyes again. He couldn’t see the sky anymore, but feeling Jongho wrapped around him, invading each one of his senses and his space, was infinitely more precious.

“It was easy to attract everyone’s attention to me. To be a target. So you could get what belongs to you, and save what’s left of our folks. I didn’t plan for you to love me, I ask for your forgiveness… I didn’t plan for you to be so pure, that you would want to save me before the world.”

His voice was becoming quieter, and Hongjoong felt himself lose his footing. Slowly, all of the aches he felt was fading, leaving its spot to a cottony feel, not pleasant nor unpleasant. He heard Jongho cry his name out, and something clatter against the ground, and then everything fell into darkness for good.

*


	2. Emerald

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jongho had to learn that he was the chosen one in the same time that he had to say farewell to his lover, captain Hongjoong. He still has the other members of his crew to rescue, especially Wooyoung who's still in jail, even though Yeosang and Seonghwa are on their way to save him too, trying to escape from the guard's watch. Their quest is far from being over, and Jongho doesn't know yet how powerful he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo! I'm sorry for the wait, I hope this second work will please you !! It's still translated by Phil aka @etoilephilante and thankfully we'll be able to give you the end of the story soon. Please consider it over for now, it was meant to stop at this second part !! Part 3 and 4 will be bonus, sort of (because we all need yungi and woosan)
> 
> I hope you'll enjoyyyy, please trust me UNTIL THE END ;;

*

Jongho couldn’t see anything anymore. The day was starting to break upon the blood staining the black flagstones, and the ripped curtains were flapping in the wind like hanged men. In his, Hongjoong's hand, freezing and void of life, though tightly wrapped around his fingers. He felt the weight of his dark circles on his cheeks and the thick stripes that the salt of his tears had left there. His heart was swinging like a clock, regularly beating without awaking any life, stringent measure of time, but not of duration. An hour could have gone by, or a day and Jongho wouldn't have noticed a difference. He was no more than a dead bird in an empty cage, now that he couldn't hear Hongjoong's anymore, even if he was still in his arms, so close to him. He had never been so light, so soft to the touch. Jongho had never known him without his gemstones, had never seen his face freed from his iridescent jail, his skin as smooth as a newborn's one. If Mana's stones' power had instantly released him of his unforgiving curse, it was already too late for his battle wounds, and the captain had already lost too much blood for pink to bloom on his pale cheeks. He was now petrified in a glabrous and silky sheath, he merely looked asleep, and so Jongho's fingers were getting numb from repeating tirelessly the same gesture, the same stroke, against his face, as when he was sleeping his arms.

The thought of joining him in death, however, did not cross Jongho's mind a second. It would have been easy, though, to shoot a bullet through his head or to make himself bleed out until a final release; but the magic that was shining in Jongho's veins was newly throbbing, unwilling to let him fly away. If he couldn’t get back up, it was because he knew parting unavoidable, and he couldn’t bear to go forward, unable to save a world where Hongjoong wasn’t here.

‘But if I don’t move, you’ll have left me for nothing, right?’ he sighed, his voice husky and his throat dry.

The grayish day lapped against his golden skin with its light, but it brought no warmth with it, and the lack of his lover was already digging a hideous cave inside Jongho's chest. After long hours spent staying put, still and silent, he leaned forward to kiss the cold marble of his forehead, and then his lips, and closed his eyes to hold back new scorching tears, revolting proofs of his own remaining life. Every one of his limbs was trembling when he laboriously got up, Hongjoong still squeezed in his arms. He struggled to reach one of the torn curtains, rest with religious care his lover's corpse at its center, to slowly fold the fabric around him, derisory shield against the heavy atmosphere in the tower.

‘Against all, I would have protected you. To the world’s end, I would have followed you. And for eternity, I would have cherished you.’

He conjugated Yggdrasil’s traditional marriage vows in the conditional past tense, keeping himself from breaking down again. Hongjoong’s hand eventually weakened around his, and he let it go with a heavy heart.

'I'll make sure that all shall remember the captain Kim Hongjoong,' he murmured, 'I promise you that no one else will have to endure what you went through. Don't go too far away while I take time to meet you again.'

Mana’s stones, picked up and gathered in a small leather pouch hanging at his neck, were strangely warm, but it wasn’t linked to the heat that seeped out of his own body. Jongho brought one of his hands to it, intrigued; and before he could open his mouth one more time, the sound of a gigantic bell startled him. The steeple overlooked the tower, and he had never been this close to it.

'There's no need to ring the bell,' the pirate mumbled before he felt a cold sweat unpleasantly drip down his spine.

‘It’s the warning of an execution to come,’ he understood, turning his gaze below for the first time in hours.

_Wooyoung… Yeosang? Seonghwa? Mingi?_

The last glance he cast to Hongjoong lingered until the tower’s door closed behind him.

_I can still save you._

*

Worn out by his fight, his ache, and his worry, Wooyoung had eventually closed his eyelids, his head tilting limply between his chains, face turned downward. He was dozing off, not entirely asleep, mumbling a few words to San to reassure him whenever he was overtaken with spasms. A terrible rumpus in the corridor above the ceiling made him open his eyes, swollen with fatigue, made up of metallic clinking, screeches, gunshots. Wooyoung furrowed his eyebrows, knowing that the regular jail was upstairs – he was locked only inside a torture room – and a massive jail-break was unlikely, as well as the possibility that someone would try to free the prisoners. The only one who had had this audacity was the captain Hongjoong, who had looked in the prisons along the high wall, in the cages hanging above the tumultuous ocean. A glimmer of hope suddenly lit Wooyoung's eyes, and he painfully hauled himself up: was his captain rummaging through the jails under the day palace looking for his crew? A smile stretched his wounded and swollen lips, even if his lids struggled to open, stuck with dried blood, and made heavy with hits that had left bruises.

A few minutes later, the noise became closer until it made the door to Wooyoung's cell shake. Stretched the furthest he could towards the door, he was clenching his fist to keep himself up, his heart was hammering to the point of shattering his ribcage, reminding him of his broken ribs. When the lock broke with a violent blow, Wooyoung stepped backward instantly, gripping his chains with his fists.

“Untie him and get him!”

He had expected a familiar face, but, ready for every eventuality, he found enough strength to raise his body by supporting himself with his hands, to send the most powerful kick he could still muster right into one of the guards' head when he came too close. The other two militiamen who were standing behind him seemed to hesitate, as the pirate took advantage of it to bare his teeth, like a threatening animal. He was growling, the sound from the back of his throat scaring the soldier off and keeping them distanced for a few precious seconds, that was enough for each of them to get a bullet through their heads and collapse to the ground.

“Jongho!”

His crewmate thus called replied with a whine half between a sob and a cry of joy, before he threw himself at his neck to squeeze him against himself, despite the chains that still kept Wooyoung from moving.

“You are alive,” he merely sighed, his voice weaker than one of a child.

He was careful to let him go without hurting him and rushed to unlock the rusty, and bloody padlocks wrapped tight around his friend's limbs.

“Alive… I alive… You say what?”

Jongho looked at him with sadness that was so profound and evident that Wooyoung felt tears burn his eyes. He couldn't believe this ending, not now. He refused to imagine the worst, not after having wished and prayed.

“Captain Hongjoong? Yeosang?”

Busy with undoing his chains, Jongho didn’t answer, even if Wooyoung saw him open his mouth to say nothing multiple times.

“Yeosang? Jongho, where Yeosang?”

A lead weight from their fear and guilt made both men unable to breathe. Wooyoung had only regained the control of his arms that he rushed to the corridor, ignoring Jongho’s wail, who didn't even try to hold him back. He hobbled around fifty meters, his arms overtaken with an atrocious throbbing ache before he reached a pile of corpses who sported the militia's uniform. The relief he first felt only made the fall more vicious when he realized the two guards sprawled there, intertwined as if they had attempted to mutually protect each other from the inevitable, weren't who they seemed to be. Seonghwa's face was half-hidden under raven-black strands, entangled with Yeosang's, brown and curly.

It was as if Wooyoung couldn't move forward on his own, as if an invisible wall stood between and his brother, his father, his son, his soulmate, and the only person who had always mattered more than himself. The one who had made him talk, who had fed him, who had carried him when he had needed it, who understood him beyond words, who had always been at his side. Yeosang was both his most precious and an extended part of his own self, a second body, or even the other half of his soul, though he was unable to define this relationship with words. His breath taken away, Wooyoung’s legs buckled at last, and he screamed. His broken voice resounded in the corridor, bouncing against the walls as his nails dug inside his skin. His guts torn apart, he felt like he was being ravaged by a devastating inferno that would’ve destroyed his own name if the memory of Yeosang pronouncing it hadn’t been this vivid in his mind. Unable to feel anything else than an inhuman ache, his desperate screeches were the only way to keep on perceiving his own body.

He didn’t see Jongho had rushed to his side, muffling down his own cries in his sleeve.

‘Wooyoung…’

But he couldn’t hear anything, lost in his distressed roars.

‘Wooyoung, please, we can't stay here. They're going to kill us, too!'

Jongho sniffled in between two pleas and timidly grabbed his crewmate's arm in an attempt to pull him up.

‘I can’t leave you here, please, I know it’s hard, I know how it feels, I’m sorry, but you need to come with me… I can’t leave you,’ he repeated.

Wooyoung let his arms fall limply along his body, apathetic, revealing small wounds on his cheeks caused by his nails. His thick lips were still swollen from the hits, opened around one last silent cry, yet he didn't turn his distraught eyes, still overflowing with tears, towards Jongho.

‘Please, Wooyoung…’

His voice was becoming weaker and weaker, like he was ready to give up as well.

‘Wooyoung,’ another voice called out, all of a sudden.

His eyes abruptly widened. Near him, another voice that he hadn't heard in months and that he had never thought he would hear again murmured in his ear.

‘Wooyoung,’ San repeated, the softest he could, ‘if we stay here, we’re all going to die. If we’re the only ones left, we have to stay strong. For everyone we lost.’

‘For the ones we lost,’ Jongho repeated with a hoarse voice.

Wooyoung slowly turned his head towards San, to see his hollow cheeks and high cheekbones stained with bitter tears. His eyes were shining, and his face was once again animated, had texture, alive; and his arms were warm as he carefully hugged him, Wooyoung letting himself lean against him after a tiny push on his arm. He wasn't aware of the force of his sobs, the sound buzzing against his temples, the only thing he could clearly make out being San's violent trembles who tried to support him.

‘Alive…’ Wooyoung enunciated.

‘Please,’ Jongho pleaded again, his hand on his back, stroking it and hoping it was reassuring.

He felt San get up against him.

‘No! Please, not… not leave…’

His voice broke again while his two crewmates fell once more at his sides.

‘I’m sorry, Wooyoung, I’m so sorry,’ Jongho choked, still pulling him by his arm.

‘Trust us.’

Drowning in his tears, Wooyoung eventually held onto San's voice, onto Jongho's arm like two rubber rings in the middle of a raging black ocean. He stood up without realizing it immediately, dragged by his companions, and if San hadn't linked his hand to Wooyoung's, he probably couldn't have run fast enough to avoid being crushed by the upper floor’s rocks. The building was collapsing from within as they were running; reaching the exit right before Wooyoung finally passed out.

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in his cell, his arms bound to each side of the wall, and his panicked eyes fell upon the red, black, and yellow statue that was San, sparkling under the dawn’s light. The salt of his tears made an open wound on his bottom lip violently sting, and the silence was almost stiflingly peaceful.

‘Alive… dead…’ the prisoner stuttered, still terribly shocked.

His gaze turned to the crack that acted as an arrow slit to his damp jail.

‘Captain, Jongho,’ he timidly called, ‘Yeosang…’

His voice finally broke, and Wooyoung burst into sobs, dreadfully lonely, his body full of pain, alone with his profound uncertainty.

*

Jongho was rushing down Mana’s Tower’s stairs before abruptly stopping when he recognized the place where they had let Mingi fight captain Yunho, continuing to go up. The fact that he hadn't joined them promised absolutely nothing good, and in the middle of the guards' corpses, Jongho felt frightened shivers run down his spine. He should have known, though; but he had seen death, dead people, too much for the rest of his life.

He turned inert corpses around one by one, his heart hammering each time louder. Still, quickly enough, he was furrowing his eyebrows as he realized that Mingi was nowhere to be seen, and mostly, that captain Yunho wasn't here either, nor at the tower's peak. He had probably never gone up, but if Mingi had managed to fight alone against all, how could it be that the guards' captain wasn't anywhere as well?

The air was heavy around him, bringing with it a thunderstorm, as Jongho started rushing down the stairs again, praying to every deity he knew of that he wouldn’t arrive too late at the bottom of Mana’s tower.

*

‘Are you sure we’re at the right place?’

Seonghwa's back was atrociously hurting from moving forward bent over inside tunnels that were getting narrower and narrower. Led by Yeosang's expert hand, he had lost the count of the underground meanders, and the massive machinery's noise that was getting closer didn't reassure him in the least.

‘Certain. We went through the palace’s ventilation circuits, and if we go down like that, we’ll reach the boiler room.’

‘Right, and how do we get out? We land on burning embers?’

He expected that Yeosang would have answered with an amused chuckle, and then a solution that would have instantly sounded logical, but Seonghwa felt an unpleasant shiver run down his back when his companion only frowned.

‘Honesty, I have no idea at all.’

‘Ah.’

The scorching heat made Seonghwa step back, pulling the other pirate in his wake and feeling a cold draft at the end of the tunnel. They sat side to side in stifling silence, daring not to cuddle into each other because of the burning air that seeped out the boiler room's pipes. The charcoal's scent choked them, and Seonghwa felt his hair stick to his forehead; from the corner of his eyes, he saw Yeosang untie his leather vest to fan himself with the hem of his cloth. Even in such circumstances, he couldn't help his gaze to linger on Yeosang's profile, modestly scrutinizing him, the shadow of a smile on the corner of his mouth, appeased by the mere fact he had found him again. His presence nearly made him forget of the worry that twisted his guts at the thought of his three crewmates left to their fate in the cursed tower.

Not admitting it consciously, he regretted the words he had spitted at his captain and lifelong friend’s face. His first and only friend for many years, truly. Seonghwa and Hongjoong had met when they had barely left childhood. The soon-to-be captain had been beaten and thrown out of home, while Seonghwa had been tasked with groceries by his parents. He had then met a frail young boy, covered in bruises, who didn't cry, his eyes lit by an indefinable gleam, perhaps a little crazed. Hongjoong had just been chased away after his mother's death, crushed by Mana's curse, that he had inherited a few years later. Born from an unknown father and an ill prostitute, the tiny bastard now orphan had been fed by his new friend for many years, every day, as Seonghwa went to the marketplace to replenish his family's stocks; he left him preserved fruits, a chunk of bread, an army calorific bar here and there. When Hongjoong had started rebelling against the government, it had felt natural to the young and outraged Seonghwa to follow him in this fight; thus, they had found themselves in a war that seemed lost before even beginning, but that hadn't lost its relevance, to their eyes. They had never left each other since. Until Seonghwa was torn between the war and love; he sensed that he would be haunted by this decision, and thus, for the remaining of his life.

‘They turn the furnace off at regular intervals, once the sun is up. I don't know what time it is,' Yeosang sighed, gnawing at his lip, 'I hope we haven't missed the- Seonghwa?'

The pirate had gotten up – or in the least, he had straightened up the furthest he could – to come closer to the extractor fan. Determined to save all the ones who needed him the most in that instant.

'They rang the bells. If we wait too long here, they could execute Wooyoung at any moment.'

‘Okay, but if we end up burned to a cinder, we won’t be able to do much more,’ the young man objected.

‘I have an idea.’

Seonghwa untied the top of his shirt as well, before tearing off its bottom speedily to get rid of it.

‘What are you…’

‘Give me yours,’ he commanded, stretching an arm out to Yeosang, ‘your vest too.’

The latter quirked an eyebrow but wordlessly obliged, undressing as fast as he could. Seonghwa blamed the ambient heat for his immediate blush and grabbed his crewmate's clothes to fold them into a messy pile with his own. He took care of putting the leather at the bottom, hoping that it would be enough to stifle the embers. Once the makeshift cushion was judged good enough, he hauled himself on top of the conduct before throwing it below. He took a deep breath and didn't lose more time to jump inside the boiler room as well, his legs tense in the hope to land safely.

‘Seonghwa!’

*

Yeosang’s call resounded against the conduct’s stone.

‘Jump!’ Seonghwa’s voice prompted him after a few seconds, hurrying him.

Not reassured, Yeosang closed his eyes before obeying. He was surprised to be caught by his companion's arms and quickly enough thrown to the ground in a gush of sparks and bits of charcoal, and one of them painfully scratched his cheek. Dizzy, he heard a choked scream and a muffled noise and realized that Seonghwa had just taken down the heating engineer with a violent hit on the back of his neck. Feeling rock against his skin covered him in goosebumps, not from cold and from the feeling that he was bare and more exposed than ever. Seonghwa came closer to him to put a quick kiss on his cheek, helping him to stand up, and they scanned the room, not needing to confer, looking for something to put on to shield themselves.

‘We look silly now.'

‘All in due time,’ Seonghwa mumbled, brutally opening the door.

Yeosang didn't have time to take his breath back that the guard standing behind the door was knocked down just as fast. Seonghwa re-entered the room dragging the unconscious body on the floor, while Yeosang got his senses back and closed the door behind him.

'Take his jacket and his breastplate. I'll take care of the engineer.'

Once disguised into the authority’s henchmen, the two pirates sneaked out of the room with the sensation they were boiling from the inside.

‘And now?’

'The torture cells are this way,' Yeosang indicated, pointing to their right, his voice shaky.

‘And if they’ve already taken him to the guillotine?’

Yeosang opened his mouth and closed it with no sound leaving past it.

‘The logical way would be to go on our own, but it’s too dangerous,’ Seonghwa muttered, mostly for himself.

Timidly, Yeosang linked his fingertips to his, his eyes suddenly clouded. He couldn't imagine losing Wooyoung without having all his limbs turning into limp jelly, lifeless, without the future being foggy, darkened. He had already given up on his crew for him, but now that Seonghwa was back with him, he was more scared than ever. Afraid of having to choose between both, or worse, to lose them both. Wooyoung was only one family, his other self, an extension of himself, his absence made him feel reduced. A life without him wasn’t even conceivable; and he felt like he was walking thin ice, about to collapse under his frightened steps.

‘Let’s try to look near the guillotine first,’ Seonghwa eventually murmured with a hoarse but comforting voice.

Yeosang raised towards him a damp gaze.

'It's better to walk the other way round and intercept him if we meet him than to be too late,' the latter smiled at him.

The younger pirate nodded softly.

*

When he heard a clatter similar to the one in his nightmare, Wooyoung rushed forward despite himself towards his cell’s closed door, momentarily forgetting that he was still bound. Rendered desperate by the prospect that his dream would become a prophecy instead of remaining a dreadful fantasy, he started howling at the moon he couldn't see. Amid beast-like screams, he managed to enunciate his crew's names, even though he himself couldn't make out of the syllables he was spitting. Ignoring the unbearable pain that was almost driving him to a fainting fit, he shook his arms to make his chains jingle, imitating a whip, more determined than ever to find back the light of day by pulling on his companion's hand. He sensed their presence in every one of his body's nerves that weren't numbed by the pressure; he was sure that they were there, on their way to find everyone.

Soon, Wooyoung's hunch was confirmed: a metallic noise echoed into the door's lock, that he saw moving as if the key wasn't working. He blinked and realized it was being broken down. If it was possible, his heart raced even faster, his arms pulling onto his binds until it almost ripped his hands from his wrists. Fortunately, only a few more – long – seconds were needed before the intruder rushed inside the cell, and then into Wooyoung's arms, who could not wrap them around his mate.

‘Jongho!’

‘Thank Mana,’ the latter stuttered, his face nuzzled into his neck, shaking like a leaf.

Running and fighting had probably worn him out. Wooyoung's eyes fluttered to adapt to the new light shyly seeping into the room made of stones, quickly guessing that a new day was rising upon Yggdrasil. Jongho had undoubtedly not slept at all that night, and, more importantly, more frightfully, he was totally alone. There wasn't his captain's crazed glare, nor the shadow of Mingi's tall figure, or Yeosang's fox-like face.

‘Jongho… all alone?’

The latter replied with a sob before letting him go. He rummaged through his pockets with no answers to take out another key, smaller than the door's one that he quickly brought to the cuffs hanging on the wall.

‘Don’t worry, I’m going to get you out of here.’

‘Jongho! Why?’

‘Because you don’t intend to go to the guillotine, I guess?’

‘Why all alone!’ Wooyoung screeched with a broken voice, abandoned to his panic.

‘I beg you, calm down…’

The prisoner clearly saw Jongho angrily wipe his tears with the back of his sleeve.

'I'm here to get you out of here. I'll tell you everything outside. All that matters is to save you, alright?'

Wooyoung blinked.

‘Save San too.’

‘What?’

Jongho startled with a fearful scream when he turned around to look at where Wooyoung was staring.

‘Shit, how is it even possible?’ the young pirate choked out, his eyes wide, visibly unable to believe what he was seeing.

Wooyoung simply shrugged.

‘San not dead. San sick too… Guards… Put him here. To hurt. But alive. San alive.’

His companion turned towards him, still stunned.

‘Not… dead?’

‘Jongho, where others? Where captain? Where Yeosang? Yeosang good?’

Jongho shook himself before he let go of Wooyoung's second hand.

‘I don’t know. Wait here, please, I have…’

*

‘Yeosang? Where Yeosang?’

‘Wooyoung, wait!’

But the prisoner escaped from Jongho’s clasp around his wrist the minute he could stand on his legs. He limped the fastest he could to the door, throwing himself against it in a loud _boom_ that probably alarmed the remaining of the army, who weren't yet aware of their attack. Jongho rushed behind him before abruptly stopping, shaken by a dilemma that was quickly resolved.

‘San…’

He had no idea how Mana’s stones worked. Hongjoong hadn’t known either, and they had focused on safety, hurrying to the treasure in the tower before it was too late.

‘ _Whatever. It’s merely a step in our quest.’_

‘ _With no heir, they’re only stones, Hongjoong.’_

_'They'll react when they find them. I'm sure of it. All we'll have to do would be to keep looking. Keep on trying. Keep faith in ourselves, and in this idiot Mana.'_

‘ _I thought you weren’t a believer.’_

_'I believe what I see. I believe in the stone's power. It would be hypocritical of me to deny it still. Men are the ones who lost my faith a long time ago.'_

Jongho gritted his teeth not to collapse again when he clearly heard his lover's voice resonate in his skull like a hammer. He gripped the pouch, hanging around his neck with a leather string, and shakily took out two stones.

‘San, help me… wake up.’

Nothing happened. Jongho’s legs almost buckled under him when he heard a faint noise at the end of the corridor.

'Mana's son, my butt… they could've provided with user instructions,’ the heir nervously muttered to himself, twisting and fiddling with the stones in his palms.

He ended up emptying the pouch on the ground before he picked the iridescent and colorful stones in his two open hands. He lightly shook them, with no conviction, his eyes lost in the rainbow reflections of Mana's treasure, that was sadly sparkling but wasn't providing him with more answers.

‘Isn’t there a spell, or something like that?’

A cold sweat was starting to drip down his spine. In each of his nerves, he could feel the stress, fear, and anticipation of the troops above his head's movements. Their lives depended on eventual seconds, and he didn't know if Wooyoung had found Seonghwa and Yeosang. Nor where was Mingi. The only certainty in his tired mind was that he wasn't strong enough to carry a crystal statue as heavy as San's, and it was out of the question to leave him again.

‘Shit, I beg you, do something!’ he ended up yelling at the stones’ way, that he pressed against San’s face, as a last resort, as if the scarlet red crystal would melt at the magical stones’ touch.

He was actually shocked to notice that it was indeed the case.

The vermilion stone that had taken the shape of his old companion turned pale until it found back the flesh's muted pink color that gave an organic and particularly disturbing look to the statue. San's eyeballs began to move again in their sockets, their pupils seemingly remaining unseeing, as if his body was possessed by something else, without proper consciousness. Jongho fearfully shivered; while he stepped backward once or twice, San's nose, now unblocked, took a deep breath similar to an agonizing wail. Soon, his arms were freed as well and sprang to grab onto the crystal that was still restraining his torso, and Jongho wasn't sure if it was to rip it away or to keep himself upright. The crystal had now become entirely transparent and colorless, its ends and bumps slowly melting to take back the tender shape of flesh. San's small mouth and sharp jaw finally got out of the stone too, and with it, the remaining of his jail stopped melting, making him collapse, weak, on the ground, at a visibly frozen and distraught Jongho's feet. So Hongjoong had indeed told the truth; he had yet to accept those words until that moment, lost in the despair of his loss. But as San was curling upon himself into a pitiful and moaning mass on the gray and cold rock of the cell, everything that came with Mana’s stones and being his heir was slowly dawning onto him.

‘San…’ Jongho called again, ironically frozen to his spot.

His old mate straightened up, his back pressed against the wall, an arm hold his stomach as if he was about to puke. His greenish-white complexion was even more prominent now, since a few short seconds prior, he had been the color of a ruby. His eyes closed, San vainly attempted to speak one first time, then a second, until eventually a moan spilled past his chapped lips.

‘Woo… catch Wooyoung…’

‘I’m not leaving you here,’ Jongho breathed, finally letting himself fall at his side, pulling San’s body against himself in a gesture he hoped comforting.

‘I’ll join you. Catch Woo. He’s going to get himself killed,’ the Etrian’s old pilot weakly pronounced, before he brutally pushed Jongho away to throw up.

At the same moment, a distressed cry resounded from behind the wall. Swearing with his teeth clenched, his heart nearly coming to a stop for the tenth time this night, Jongho jumped to his feet, despite the violent dizziness that took over him. He was pulling onto the last of his vital force, and his sight was becoming blurry; but he was set on resting only when he would die or once his crew was reunited.

‘Wooyoung!’

‘Jongho!’

‘Seonghwa?’

The young man stopped abruptly, a choked scream scratching at his throat, as he took into the sight of Wooyoung and Yeosang entangled on the ground. Seonghwa, standing near them, was wearing the guard's uniform, as well as his mate, and oozed a strong burned smell that reached Jongho's nostrils. The young man stayed utterly still for a moment, overwhelmed by too many opposite emotions to understand how to make his body move. Then, without any warning, he burst into tears like a child.

‘Jongho…’

He heard more than he saw Seonghwa jog to him and let himself fall into the brotherly hug he was giving him. He heard the pirate squeaked out of surprise when he caught him against himself, unused to such displays of affection and probably indecisive about how to react, but Jongho was nearly dying of fatigue, properly unable to respond any other way.

What followed next got lost in a thick fog inside Jongho’s mind; he felt Seonghwa hold him with one arm, yelling at Yeosang and Wooyoung to get back upon and shooting with his free arm guards that he couldn’t see. The youngest of the crew stuttered San’s name out, vainly hoping that the others would hear him despite his voice being reduced into a whistle. As a reaction to his call or a mere instinct, he heard Wooyoung rush again into his cell, violently fall to the ground, then standing up again, helped by Yeosang, and finally, fetching San who was leaning against the door frame. A rancid, stuffy, and moldy odor surrounded him, rendering his presence detectable yet making Jongho gag. Seonghwa nearly choked him for good when he pressed a piece of clothing against his nose.

'We don't have time. Get back to your senses!'

When they finally found a temporary shelter in another corridor, miserably slumping to take their breath back, Yeosang said:

‘San, I’m sorry to ask this now, but can you fly one of the guard’s vehicles?’

‘You crazy?’ Wooyoung exclaimed, furious.

'We don't really have a choice,' Seonghwa mumbled, loading his gun, 'Yes or not, San?'

A mad grin split the pilot’s thin jaw, his eyes glimmering in a way that painfully reminded him of their old captain’s hallucinating gaze.

‘Those iron scrap? I could fly them even with no arms.’

‘Alright. At my signal, you run to the platform. I can cover for you a little more than a minute, at a rough guess. Take a ship, and start the takeoff. I'll jump in at that moment. Okay?'

Jongho nodded, even though his head seemed to weigh a ton. Wooyoung and San complied as well, wordlessly; however, they all thought to be delirious when Yeosang threw himself at Seonghwa's lips, cupping his face between his thin fingers. His eyes were wrinkled from squeezing them shut as if he was holding his tears back. Jongho blinked a few times, uncertain of his own sanity, but it would have been impossible to make up the emotion that overcame Seonghwa's pupils as he lovingly watched him.

‘Be careful.’

‘You too,’ the captain’s right-hand man murmured, tenderly stroking his neck.

He left a kiss on Yeosang’s lips as well, timid and almost ghostly, before jumping to his feet.

‘And mostly, don’t turn around. Go, shoo!’

Jongho's legs were shaky, the pain driving him crazy; San's complexion was once more sickly. However, they went up the rocky ramp that led out of the underground, towards the platform where the army's ships landed, their only way to escape. Mana's heir saw Yeosang grit his teeth holding San by the waist, while Wooyoung limped next to him. When Jongho almost collapsed to the ground, he bumped him on the shoulder to help him find his footing back. The sound of Seonghwa's gunshots was becoming more and more distant, but perhaps it was because of their buzzing ears and not how far they had gotten.

They easily found a vessel, where Yeosang nearly threw San with no delicacy, after Jongho had shot a bullet into the door's control panel. The pilot crawled onto his knees to the main room until he disappeared from Jongho's sight, who pushed Wooyoung after him into safety. Yeosang, however, grabbed onto the handrail with him before sending him a frightened glance.

‘Please, tell me I can turn around.’

But when Mana’s heir was ready to yell at Seonghwa to join them, he saw him hold a bloody stump against his stomach, his features twisted in a mixture of hatred, fear, and pain. His gun was lying a few meters away, projected by the hit.

‘SEONGHWA!’ Jongho still shouted himself hoarse, refusing to admit defeat.

He still had time to run; even though it was a vain hope.

The tall pirate turned around, locking eyes with Yeosang, who had stopped breathing for a few seconds, and ran to the ship, its engines starting to thrum. It seemed to Jongho that the scene was unfolding in slow motion before his helpless eyes. Time almost froze when he caught the sight of the guard right behind Seonghwa, armed with a shotgun that held their second in command at gunpoint. Yeosang grabbed Jongho's hand to squeeze it strong enough to shatter his bones, shaken by a hiccup. In the time of a blink, a salvo, all would be over.

The sound of a shot indeed resounded, but it was the army’s soldier who collapsed in a pool of red ruby blood. Jongho squinted, incredulous. He was probably and properly delirious; it was unthinkable that the small white-haired figure that he distinguished far away would be anything else than an illusion. Yeosang screamed something that sounded like a gurgle, shaken when the vessel was slowly taking off, and Seonghwa, his eyes wide but not shocked enough to stop running, jumped onto the ramp, and Jongho brutally pushed them both inside.

‘Jongho!’ Yeosang called, stretching a hand to him.

‘No! Tell San to turn around, now!’

‘Are you crazy? We don’t have time!’

‘NOW!’ Jongho roared, uncaring of the faulty notes in his voice, more restless than ever.

‘Are you to get us all killed? We take off, and we leave!’ Seonghwa’s voice retorted, sounding more like a growl than anything else as well.

Rage was growing inside Jongho’s chest like hell’s fire, reducing everything he felt to nothing. He was no more than hope, a raging hope, a vengeful hope, an insane hope. He was probably hallucinating; but if there was the smallest chance that he was right, it was absolutely out of the question to let it go. He unhooked his gun from his belt, to point it with his free hand to his crew, the other hardly maintaining him to the handrail's chain.

'Seonghwa, Yeosang, go tell San to veer starboard and stay the closest possible to the ground. It's an order!'

The youngest’s jaw was slack from astonishment, while Seonghwa’s gaze darkened.

‘Jongho, what are you doing?’

‘Don’t make me repeat myself!’

Seonghwa withdrew himself into the vessel’s shadow. Jongho had to support himself with both hands not to fall when they performed a turnover almost complete. All the air in his lungs was gone, and he felt like he existed only for the white blotch that kept on shooting the guards as if to give them more time. He saw the enemy soldiers fall one by one, and, at the same pace as the figure's moves, a sliver of light blinked as the sunrise reflected onto the saber at his belt. While the ship was getting closer and closer to their fortuitous savior, Jongho should have been able to make out the latter's features, but tears blinded him too much to treat himself to the confirmation of what his heart already knew. He used the last of his strength to stretch his arms out, that the shooter nimbly caught, letting himself be hauled up onto the stolen ship’s ramp.

When the door closed, making the ramp, left open, slam against the ship's entrance, Jongho was violently thrown against the wall but didn't let go of Hongjoong yet. The pain of his back hit against the metal triggering a small shout out of him, immediately followed by a loud sob when he realized it really was Hongjoong's body that he was squeezing once again against himself. Warmed up, moving, beating, out of breath, bony, muscled, sticky, light, fragrant, alive; he was he, he was back, it was real. Abandoned on the cold floor of the exit ramp, too weak to stand back up, both men stayed still. Jongho squeezed Hongjoong as if he wished to crush him, to destroy him himself, and was crying a torrent, a storm, an ocean on his shoulder. His relief was such that it became painful, oppressive, so much that he felt like in a dream. Similar to a newborn, Jongho was crying the distress of his happiness, shaken by emotions he couldn't understand anymore, while Hongjoong weakly wrapped his arms around his back, a derisory attempt of comfort, letting himself be choked and closing his eyes.

*

‘Captain…’

Entirely incredulous, Yeosang was watching the two figures before him with wide eyes. Jongho had told them that their captain had led his last battle, and beyond the pirate's words, Yeosang had felt it, in his heart. He had felt a broken link, like the child who loses their parent; he knew it by instinct, unable to really identify such a split, but the facts remained the same, something broke. Something had died in Yeosang during the night, and he had opened his eyes when it was at its darkest hours, trembling against Seonghwa's sleeping body.

‘You can’t be alive,’ Seonghwa said, appearing near him as if he read in his mind.

Hongjoong’s body was shaken by laughter more than he really laughed. He opened his night-blue eyes, looking at his crew from above his lover’s shoulder, his mouth still mostly buried into Jongho's shoulder. His gaze sparkled with a new, unknown glow, despite his purple dark-circles and his translucent pale skin; Yeosang could have sworn someone had transplanted eyes to a corpse. But the two gloomy sapphires fixed onto him made for undeniable proof of reality, be it unbelievable; Hongjoong was alive, and more than that, he was healed.

‘The last time I saw you, you had a black gemstone coming out of your forehead,’ Yeosang breathed out.

Hongjoong smile, his usual madness appearing more softly, as if more mature, more appeased.

‘We found them,’ he merely answered.

‘It’s impossible.’

'I've always had a sense for departures. I couldn't let you have the last word.'

Seonghwa was about to let an acid remark spill past his lips, but he was interrupted by Wooyoung, who slightly pushed him away to run and throw himself on Hongjoong and Jongho, on his knees, and take them both in his arms.

‘Alive,’ he mumbled before he closed his eyes, exhausted.

Hongjoong coughed, shaken by the impact, and Jongho simply sobbed harder than before. Yeosang softly took Seonghwa’s hand and pressed it in his for an instant, before joining the human pile on the floor. He put his head on Wooyoung’s shoulder, an arm slipping to Jongho’s back. Seonghwa blew a sigh with no particular explicit meaning.

‘I’ll help San to land the ship somewhere.’

*

Standing in the middle of their stolen ship’s cockpit, much smaller than what they were used to on the Etrian, Hongjoong let his gaze wander upon each one of his crew members. He sported a satisfied and relieved smile on his lips as he calmly watched San drive, albeit difficultly, to make them land onto a pebble islet, behind the reef barrier that shielded them from Yggdrasil's army, for a brief moment at least. The elation of their escape had started to simmer down; thus, Seonghwa and Yeosang looked at the young pilot with terror, though it wasn't specially directed to him; more like they feared to be hallucinated. Amused, their captain was taking great care into not being the one to explain first, relishing in the peace of his found soul. He had been within the dead and memories, illusions and dreams, for too long not savor the others' confusion a bit more.

Against all expectation, it was Wooyoung who broke the silence, shyly shaking Yeosang's arm.

‘San stone. Why San stone no more?’

The pilot glanced at Jongho, with no answer. He was probably focusing on flying, especially considering his heavy fatigue that made it particularly dangerous, but Hongjoong assumed it wouldn't have known what to say even if he wasn't in charge of piloting. He looked at Jongho, who was sprawled at the back of the cabin, his eyes closed, and his head limply bobbing.

‘It’s him.’

Everyone turned to Hongjoong at the same time, the same astonishment and confusion on their face.

‘Mana’s heir, it’s Jongho.’

'What are you spouting now?' Seonghwa groaned, frowning, displeased.

Never losing his calm, the captain continued speaking.

‘The stones answer to him. He's able to free the statues or to create new ones. And he probably has many more hidden powers.'

‘You knew about it?’ Yeosang murmured.

‘Yes.’

‘Since when?’

‘Since our first night together,’ Hongjoong answered, a surprisingly delicate and fond grin on his emaciated face.

‘You knew it for four years and never told us a thing?' Seonghwa choked, his features twisted by an incredulous wince.

The captain stayed quiet.

'You could've given us a reason to keep going, you could've given us hope, you could've even enrolled a bigger crew and put us all under fewer risks, and you never told us a thing? This whole time, you never really trusted us?'

'I didn't tell him either.'

Seonghwa's arms furiously sprang out in front of him, as if to signify he was giving up the debate before he walked to the ship's window. Wooyoung and Yeosang glanced at each other, arching and furrowing their eyebrows in a way that meant something for them only. On his part, San sighed lengthily.

‘He didn’t have a choice.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘It was too dangerous. This strategy is old as the hills, making yourself a bait, making up a fake clue to keep suspicions away from what's really at stake. He couldn't run the risk of the information spreading. Wooyoung was captured and tortured, it could've been any one of us. I was turned into a statue, and you couldn't have stayed back to get me, just because we'd know you could turn me back. He had to make Jongho's existence forgettable, so the army would focus on Hongjoong. If our behavior had changed, their target would have too.'

A long silence replied to the young pilot’s explanation, while Wooyoung rapidly nodded.

‘You shouldn’t speak this much when you’re flying,’ Hongjoong softly teased.

San braked abruptly, and the ship stopped itself completely, nearly making them all lose their balance. Then, he turned around on his seat with a pleased air.

‘And now, can I speak?’

‘Nothing of this is funny!’ Seonghwa exclaimed, turning around as well, ‘Mingi doesn’t even know why he’s dead! And he trusted you, Hongjoong!’

‘Oh, Mingi isn’t dead,’ the captain breathed out, stretching his arms, ‘and don’t worry about him, I’m sure he’s safe and sound.’

‘How?’

‘How? Because you didn't find him in a torture cell, for starters, then because his body vanished, and we did try to find him, and finally, because captain Yunho vanished, as well. And I very well intend to get him, wherever he is before coming back to Yggdrasil. Don't even try to think I would let anyone behind.'

His gaze had changed, finding back for a brief moment its usual flames, its hostility, and its belligerence, as he looked at his second in command with mad eyes. If Seonghwa wavered a few seconds, it wasn’t for very long.

‘Still, that’s what you did. If we’re all alive, it’s no thanks to you, _captain_.’

Hongjoong stared at Jongho, still peacefully asleep – or knocked over by exhaustion, which was probably basically the same – and his ardor instantly simmered down, to leave space only for a deep weariness.

'It's why you're the only one who could be my second. It's why you needed not to know a thing. Because you're the one who keeps us alive. Not I.'

Seonghwa's eyes opened so wide they almost fell out of their sockets.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘He’s trying to say thank you,’ Yeosang breathed out, ‘and us too, we should thank you.’

As soon as Yeosang’s voice resounded in the cockpit, it was as if all the tension that had threatened to blow up faded away. He sneaked a shy hand into Seonghwa’s back, his eyes never leaving his sight, an intense adoration painted on his fox-like face.

‘…anks,’ Wooyoung mumbled, letting himself fall to the floor.

'Seonghwa's right. You all deserve thanks and apologies. Thank you for following him anyway. For believing in me, despite all the egotistic lies I told you. And I apologize for involving you in this quest while keeping you away from the goal.'

'Wait a minute,' San interrupted him, 'it's all very moving, but you have yet to tell how why you came back from the dead. Don't make us believe Jongho would've just left you to your faith, even if he had the power to save the world. Not without you.'

Hongjoong coughed, an odd and warm sensation spreading onto his cheeks and neck.

‘He thought I was dead. I was bleeding out in this damned tower. I had stones inside my guts, and they didn’t just disappear. Jongho doesn’t fully control them, nor he understands his powers. I think the process of healing was slow and weakening that it put me in a kind of coma. It was so cold…’

He shivered despite himself.

‘Jongho didn’t feel your heartbeat?’

‘I have a heart of stone,’ Hongjoong said sarcastically, quirking an eyebrow.

‘Idiot,’ Seonghwa growled, ‘this is not the right time!’

San flushed, trying to hold his laughter back, while Wooyoung turned towards them the same imperturbable gaze as usual.

‘Seriously, half of my guts had been surrounded with stones. A mistake is easily made. When I woke up, I coughed up an unbelievable amount of stones. I wonder how I can even still use my throat.’

‘Mana wouldn’t even give us this blessing,’ the second sighed.

‘I did tell you I’d never let you have the last word.’

The silence stretched for a moment, during which both men gauged each other with their strange complicity back, a mixture of competitiveness, shared bad faith, misplaced pride, and an indifferent friendship.

‘While we’re talking about him, where’s Jongho?’ San asked, surprised, stopping once again this confrontation.

Hongjoong turned to the ship’s exit trapdoor that had been left ajar.

*

Sitting on the cove's pebbles, Mana's son was watching the ocean as if he had never seen it. He didn't know how long he had gone without sleep and couldn't count how many shocks he had been given in less than a day. The air was colder than in between the stifling city's walls that they had finally left; Jongho shivered. The gray waves reflected the shy peach and golden hues made by the few morning sunbeams that broke the dark clouds. The rocks around him shifted between pastel brown and dark green nuances, and the young pirate took into their sight with wonder, resting his chin on his knees. There were no wild plants since a long time ago in the black city. The waves' sound against the shore was muffled but regular, a natural lull that created a tale-like atmosphere.

Jongho had preferred to leave to finally breath, alone with his thoughts, and the new life that now was forced upon him, his new role into Yggdrasil's divine tragedy. He had never thought himself to be the gods' equal; the mere idea of taking Hongjoong's spot as the captain was incredibly scary. He had always liked better to remain in the shadow, away from others' attention, in the first row to watch Hongjoong shine. He liked better to save his friends, protect them than to lead them, and the thought that he could now be in charge if it wasn't unpleasant to him given that he wasn't alone, was still weird. He found it easier to admit Hongjoong's resurrection than to believe that the latter had spent his last four years of his life shielding him from the entire world.

As if his thoughts had the power to summon him – which wouldn't have been surprising – Jongho suddenly heard the noise of pebble knocking against each other and didn't need to turn around to feel Hongjoong's presence near him, standing and silent in front of the horizon. It was peculiar to see the captain follow someone else; but Jongho had never isolated himself until then. A few seconds, then minutes, passed by in a cottony calm, without neither of them speaking up.

‘Ready to take over the power?’ the pirate captain eventually said, his usual biting tone a cracking facade as an attempt to open a door.

Jongho shivered unpleasantly.

‘First, Mingi… then, we’ll see, I guess.’

'You don't have to be alone. We'll have your back. We'll be with you. You don't have to fear who you are. The best leaders are the ones who don't want power.'

Hongjoong’s voice had become softer.

'Are you saying this for yourself?' Jongho smiled.

‘Oh no, I am the worst captain there is. I was lucky to have the right crew, that’s it.’

The younger man blew a tiny laugh, barely audible, before quieting down again.

‘You don’t have to pretend to love me, even if to protect me,’ he murmured after a few minutes.

There was no traces of anger, bitterness, or rejection in his voice. His tone, far from being vindictive, was relaxed and soft, a tender smile even blooming on the corners of his lips.

‘What do you mean?’ Hongjoong asked, stunned, in a hushed voice.

‘I know you consented to my advances to make yourself feel like you had won over a member of the army. You had a lust for revenge, and I was merely amazed by your presence. And then, I know that you would've done anything to protect me and my secret. That you hadn't planned on me falling madly in love with you… Now, you're free, captain Hongjoong.'

Jongho turned to him as he pronounced his name with all the fondness he had in himself, his eyes shiny.

‘I gave you my heart, but I don’t care to know whom yours belongs to. As long as you’re alive, as long as you stay by my side.’

Hongjoong grinned mysteriously before he eventually sat next to Jongho. His gaze fixed straight before him on the foggy horizon, he took the time to breathe in, and then out, relishing in this atmosphere of which he finally perceived all its flavors and fragrances.

‘Against all, I’ll protect you.’

‘What?’

‘To the world’s end, I’ll follow you,’ Hongjoong kept going, ‘and for eternity, I’ll cherish you.’

Astonished and speechless, Jongho couldn't find anything to say back. Hongjoong then laid his night blue eyes onto his long fingers, opened on his thigh, and moved his small hand to link it to his lover’s one. Jongho felt something hard and hold press against his palm; when Hongjoong let go of his hand, he discovered a small and misshapen but sparkly emerald gem.

‘What is…’

‘I coughed it out when I woke up,' Hongjoong explained, shrugging, 'there were dozens, hundreds of others, but it was the only green one.'

Jongho hadn’t even realized he was crying again when Hongjoong took his face in his hands to make him look up.

‘Mana knows that I have a hard time telling the truth, but every time we made love, it was true, Jongho.’

They exchanged a kiss. Jongho simply sniffled, unbelieving of his own absolutely incredible luck.

‘I want to live by your side. Especially if you're crazy enough to swear to love me for the remaining of your life… if I were you, I take the advantage to flee the furthest possible.'

A choked burst of laughter shook Jongho, bumping his forehead to Hongjoong’s. Not letting speak one more word, he kissed him with passion, sacrificing his breath to abandon himself wholly to his love, that Hongjoong reciprocated hastily. He quickly supported himself onto Jongho’s shoulders to haul himself up, straddling his thighs, and the young pirate wrapped his arms around his waist, letting himself fall backward, his back against the beach’s pebbles. Already melting into one another and yet still not satisfied, both men sent their worn-out clothes flying with no shame, aware of being, at this moment, finally all alone. Hongjoong's skin was so thin under his pirate's rugged fingers, yet keen on devouring every bit, discovering again spots where they had wandered so often. Jongho's breath echoed like the wind of freedom to his finally freed captain's ears.

When San, worried not to see them come back, found them intertwined, naked against each other and locked into their bubble, eyes to eyes, he went back in the vessel on the tip of his toes, red like the ruby he had once been. He joined with feather step a peacefully asleep Wooyoung in the vast cockpit's couch, firmly holding Yeosang's arm, himself trapped in Seonghwa's clasp. The young pilot, smiling, nestled into the remaining spot next to Wooyoung and closed his eyes when the latter nuzzled his head into his neck.

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is it I hope it was good enough ;-; please leave a comment or a kudo, it's so helpful and important for us writers especially in such days where it's basically so hard to live qslqkdlsdkz 
> 
> I'm on twitter @chrisiscore !!
> 
> I hope you're doing okay, that you can take care of yourself and of your surroundings <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, pleaaase don't hesitate to kudo or to comment!!! This is truly one of the most important work to me, especially in the atiny fandom because of how much it's linked to Ateez' cinematic universe ;;
> 
> I'm on twitter @chrisiscore !!! join me there too uwu
> 
> im posting asap, thanks for reading, love y'all so much take care!!!


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